Here are the thoughts and images of one who aims humbly for that one treasure known as Enlightenment, Moksha, Nirvana, or The Kingdom of Heaven. I share with the reader the little insight and experience I am given on this quest of Love. I will have nothing new to say, but the way I express it will be genuine and honest. If a single phrase or painting come to be helpful to others, this whole mess will be worth the while.
Well met, traveller.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Disarming the Gorillas of Life

All spiritual traditions advocate
detachment, or non-attachment, as it is sometimes called. Spiritual
teachers, contemporary, and from the past, all have different ways to
explain and express this very important principle of religious
practice/conduct. Zen Master Bassui says we shall walk through this
world as if it was a village ridden with pestilence (touch nothing),
and Jesus expresses it even more radically when he states: "If
anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, wife,
children, brothers, and sisters, as well as his own life, he can't be
my disciple. (Luke 14:26)

Like all spiritual teachings these
are pointers meant for investigation and guidance. If they are
understood as truth in themselves misunderstandings are inevitable.
It would certainly be very stupid to love our enemies while
simultaneously hating our families. What then, do they mean? And why
should we detach ourselves from life and the many gifts of our Lord?

Just like the fish cannot know what
water is, since it is constantly submerged in it, we cannot know what
life is, until we (to some level) become free from it. When it
happens, that we come to see life, not from a point of being
submerged in it, but from a point of detachment, it is truly a
fabulous revelation. Great unstoppable laughter is then likely to
erupt, because the strangeness of life, and the incredible reality of
its being, is pure awe and tremendous joy. In amazement we look
around, and for the first time we become fully aware of the fact
that; this really is! Just
like fire is unaware of heat, we are not fully aware us, and if we
cannot know our own nature, then how will we ever know the Lord, in
whose mysterious image we're created? As it is, we are far too
involved in the details and desires of daily life, to manage any kind
of perspective.

Let's put it this
way. To become free from the leashes of earthly life, we must neither
desire, nor repel the phenomena and objects we here encounter.
Neither negatively or positively charged energy can create the
stillness and spaciousness required for perspective. Only when the
energies of life are allowed to flow freely through us, without
clinging to our consciousness, can we hope to elevate ourselves
enough from the stickiness of the world, to experience what we are.

The more we have invested (of ourselves) in this world, the less
willing we will be to let go of it. While the mind wrestles
with the wraiths of impermanence, in its futile attempts to gain
control (over the targets of its fear), and while we struggle to
become (accepted or important in the eyes of others) we grasp
continuously at the foundation of relative existence. The Absolute
thus remains unknown.

I get this
picture of an enormous, self-governed, artificial intelligence which
reaches out (with one of its numerous antennas of sense) and connects
to a tiny box within which a simple computer-game is running.
Attracted to that game of climbing ladders, jumping barrels, and
saving damsels in distress, the antenna inside the box forgets its
greater self (the Master AI) and freedom. It now fears the digital
barrels, and the screams of the damsel keeps it busy climbing ladders
and collecting points. What in this situation would give it the
courage and space to pause for a while, and remember its true nature?

It cannot stop
the barrels from rolling, and therefore it must accept them. Not
fear, not hate, not repel, but accept them. Love is even better. Save
the damsel, love the damsel, but let go of possessive desire. (More
about love in a later blog-post). Hiding, or bailing out from life is
a repellent, negative energy decision, which gives importance and
substance to the world we are trying to transcend, so that will not
work.

The
only solution available is detachment. If we can learn to accept, or
maybe even love, whatever we encounter in this world, while to the
best of our abilities, we avoid to cling, crave, desire, hate, fear,
loath, judge, or in any way become seriously involved with it, then
we may reach a point where we can see within ourselves the true
meaning of detachment, and how it strangely enough takes us deeper
into existence, and into the very soul of things..

With
experience, faith gets stronger, and as the presence of the Lord
becomes increasingly clear, so does our house on the rock, which no
wind in the world can move. Only from there, true detachment, and
fearless, unconditional love is possible.